Eternal Fire
by onepiece-ftw
Summary: Ace had recently joined the Whitebeard Pirates but the need never arouse to tell them that his birthday is in a short while. That didn't slip Marco though and he got a special surprise party ready for Ace. Will Ace like his equally special birthday gift? Marcoace one-shot. Super late but definitely for Ace's birthday!


Hello, everyone! :D Long time no see. ^^ I'm still swamped with final exams and this kinda shit.. Nevertheless, and regardless of having one of my finals in 12 hrs, here's another marcoace fic! I wanted this to be Ace's birthday fic but seeing as it's 11 days late... It has the theme of Ace's birthday though, so I hope it passes as his bd fic. ^^''

Thanks for my dear friend, Maria, for pre-reading and beta'ing! Read and review and tell me what do you think. (:

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><p>"<em>Ace! Ace! Wake up already." Rang through the room before a certain sleeping freckled boy felt someone tackle him from above his blanket. He knew exactly who it was, it's unmistakable.<em>

"_Lu.." Ace groaned, gathering as much strength as he could in his sleepy state and flipped Luffy off him, accidentally flipping himself off the bed as well only to land on top of Luffy on the ground. Only the squirming and soft giggles made Ace get up and pull Luffy up with him, ready to scold him for being so loud in the morning and waking him up in the first place, but Luffy beat him to it._

"_Happy birthday, Ace! How old are you now? You're really getting bigger, older and stronger, eh? Ace is so cool! Happy birthday, Ace!" _

_As soon as he finished his sudden outburst, Luffy latched himself onto Ace, wrapping his rubber legs and arms around his brother like a koala would do to a tree branch. _

_Against his will, Ace found himself chuckling and wrapped his arms around Luffy, hugging him. "Thank you, Lu." He felt happy and content regardless of his brother's bone-crushing hug and how loud he was being. He couldn't even think of scolding Luffy after hearing him say such nice words._

"_Come on, let's go so we can see what we can hunt for today. We're having a feast!"_

Grey eyes slowly blinked, waking up their owner to a fresh new day, with happy giggles of a younger version of himself and his little brother ringing in his ears. It took Ace a moment to recognize where he was after seeing such a sweet memory from his childhood and he sat up in bed. It'd only been a short while since he'd accepted Whitebeard as his father and taken on his mark, but it already felt like a lifetime with all the memories he had made with the crew.

Looking out of the window and seeing that the sun had yet to rise, Ace decided to get up and take a quick shower before breakfast. Gathering his fresh clothes and heading out of the room, the newest son of Whitebeard almost ran into the eldest son, Marco.

"Ah, Marco. Good morning." Ace grinned, earning a smile from the other.

"Good morning, yoi. Heading for the showers?" Marco asked in a polite attempt at a short conversation.

"Yeah. Gonna catch some hot water before the others wake up. I'll see you at breakfast", and with that, Ace was gone, not noticing Marco's lingering gaze on his retreating form or the all-too-mysterious smile the blond had on his face. Ace acted like it's just another day, not his birthday, and Marco couldn't help but feel a bit proud of their plan for the day and his own little, private addition to it.

"Pssssst. Is he gone yet?" A soft whisper brought Marco out of his train of thoughts, giving his confirmation quietly and cautiously. The commanders came out from weird hiding places in the corridor of the private cabins. Suddenly, loud crashing and noises of things falling down interrupted the soft murmurs between the commanders and Izo sighed.

"As discreet as ever, Thatch," Izo said with a roll of his eyes and went to a pile of crates and trinkets, pulling Thatch out of the mess by his ankle. The forth division commander only laughed in the process. "Can you blame me? I'm really excited about this little surprise we're carrying out." He brushed invisible dust off his white pants and smirked at Marco.

"But way to go, Marco. Your guess was correct after all; concerning Ace's morning routine." Thatch chuckled and elbowed his brother's side playfully, only to get himself shoved slightly.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Let's get going, yoi", and with that, everyone started moving again, carrying big bags full of confetti, sweets they had bought from the last port they'd been to and various gifts for Ace. They went to the back of The Moby Dick where two people from every division were waiting.

"Alright, everyone, you know what you have to do. Once dinner is called for and everyone enters the galley, you start working on getting everything ready for the surprise party, understood? But until then, leave everything in the back here, nobody will show up as the railing still needs to get fixed… as far as they know." Marco talked quietly and after everyone nodded and grinned, the commanders handed the crewmembers their bags and left to go to the galley.

As the chefs called for breakfast, the crew gathered in the galley and everyone started eating, the commanders acted as if they didn't plan anything or knew anything and went on with their meal. After all, Marco only told them, about the small piece of information that was Ace's birthday, not the entire crew, so obviously everyone will be surprised.

Marco and Thatch kept Ace company as usual, and the young man didn't even suspect a thing, that or he's a really good actor, which Marco really doubted. After finishing their meal, Marco excused himself to go finish his paperwork. Thatch excused himself as well to go and finish some work in the kitchen, leaving Ace to wander around the ship idly until Jozu and Vista asked him to come over and help with some repairs.

Working with his brothers had taken a good amount of time out of Ace's day and soon he found himself having his seconds of lunch. Marco didn't show up so he thought that he was most likely still trying to finish whatever paperwork a first division commander would have. Ace, however, didn't know why he felt something was wrong with Marco not being there, as if something inside him was missing. So after he finished his food and deemed his stomach full, he took a plate and filled it with food and went to Marco's room.

Ace entered after hearing Marco's -obviously bored- voice telling him to come in and grinned with the plate held out in front of him. "Thought I'd get you some food. You missed lunch."

"I'm not hungry, yoi. But… thanks, Ace." Marco smiled and looked up at the other, getting up and taking the plate from his hand. "Want to stay a bit?" Marco asked as he sat on his bed and placed the plate on the nightstand as his desk was littered with paper.

"Nah, I think I'll pass this time. I need to nap for a while or I'll fall asleep during dinner." Ace chuckled and waved at him with a soft smile before exiting the room and closing the door behind him quietly, leaving Marco alone once more. The blond groaned and lied down on his back on the bed, rubbing his eyes with his palms. _'Guess I'll just... wait till after the party to move on with my plan',_ and with that thought in mind, Marco found his eyes closing and he welcomed the nap without any complaints.

The sound of persistent knocking brought Marco out of his nap, wondering how long he had slept. He sat up on the bed and groaned, telling whoever was knocking to come in. He was quite surprised to see an irritated Izo enter, a frown on his face and his hands on his hips like a parent getting ready to scold their child.

"What took you so long? Never mind, you look like you've been sleeping for ages. Come on, it's dinner time." Izo spoke quickly and pulled Marco up by the arm, wondering why the blond acted so disoriented. "What's wrong?"

Marco blinked as he got up and looked at Izo. "I don't really know. I can't remember falling asleep or sleeping that deeply. It never happened before," Marco said quietly, as if musing to himself, and Izo couldn't help but notice how confused he looked.

"Later. Now come on, put on a new un-wrinkled jacket and let's go." Izo stopped and looked at the nightstand, noticing the plate of food. "Who brought you lunch?"

"Ace." Was Marco's only reply, trying to make his voice as neutral as possible, as he went to his drawer to pull out a fresh jacket, glad he had his back turned to Izo so the kimono-clad man wouldn't see his stupid smile.

Izo, on his part, stayed quiet at that response, a secret smile on his lips as he idly moved his hands through his hair to put it back in shape. Once Marco had a new shirt on, they moved silently and left the room heading for the galley. They passed a few of the men assigned with the surprise party preparations and gave them a curt nod.

"Oh, right. We informed the rest of the crew of the surprise party while Ace was napping," Izo said on their way to the galley. Marco nodded and murmured something close to "Good", too busy calming down his thoughts.

"Relax. I'm sure he'll love what you have for him," Izo said quietly to his brother as soon as they entered and left to join Jozu and the others to eat, leaving Marco standing behind with a dumb look on his face and slightly wide eyes.

"You're starting to look highly unintelligent, Marco." Thatch's comment only made Izo scoff at him but it was enough to bring Marco out of his dumbfounded state, and he proceeded to sit down next to Ace. He mentally heaved a sigh of relief that the boy was so deeply focused on eating and hadn't noticed how he looked a moment ago.

Dinner passed fairly normal, and Marco, alongside the other commanders, was relieved. As he finished and engaged himself in random conversation with Thatch, Marco noticed that the men who they had left out on the deck to prepare for the party came back, tired but grinning. However, Ace noticed that as well.

"Oh, where have those guys been? They missed dinner!" Ace exclaimed and the commanders who'd been listening froze in place.

"They were fixing some stuff on the deck, Ace. You know, the railing needed some mending," Thatch said with a grin that was slightly quivering, a sign that he was lying, but only the old crewmembers knew about it, not Ace.

"Oh, yeah. Oi, you," Ace called out to one of the men, got up and walked over to him. "It's John, isn't it? I'll be on watch tonight with you on the main deck. Just thought I'd let you know." Ace chuckled and extended his hand to shake the other crewmate's. John chuckled and managed to hide his nervousness and shook Ace's hand. "Nice meeting ya, Ace."

Everyone relaxed but soon tensed up when the freckled young man declared he was heading out to get ready for his watch. Marco was the quickest to react, moving fast with measured large steps and swung his arm around Ace's shoulders, pulling him slightly closer and hoping that Ace wouldn't notice how quick his heart was beating.

"Nah, Ace. Why don't you help me with something first. There is a… few things I need you to look at." Marco led both himself and Ace over to the galley's door, motioning with his other hand behind his back for everyone to come close behind them. Once he was close enough to the door he kicked it open, everyone yelled in unison at the same moment, "SURPRISE!"

Out on the deck, decorations were hanging all along the railing, dangling from the masts in little shapes of flames of orange, yellow and red. A huge mountain of presents and wrapped gifts were in the middle of the deck and Whitebeard sat on his chair, grinning down at his son's clearly surprised face. The Moby Dick looked completely different, not just because of the decorations but it was like the entire atmosphere changed to a warm, big house full of brothers and sisters, not a ship that holds the strongest pirate crew in the world.

Ace's jaw slacked for some time after everyone had yelled "surprise". His eyes darting around in every direction, then he looked up at Marco, who still had his arm around his shoulders, and slowly a big grin split his face, making Marco smile widely.

"Thought you could go by without telling us it's your birthday, yoi?" Marco chuckled and used his free hand to ruffle Ace's hair lightly in a brotherly way, hoping to hide how nervous he was feeling at being so close to the youth. Unbeknown to him, Ace too was feeling heat pull in his cheeks and his stomach gave a small fluttering feeling upon hearing Marco's voice so close and so caring.

Ace didn't know when it started exactly, but a short while back, he started feeling weird whenever the first division commander spoke to him, or just spoke in general. Hearing Marco's voice wasn't soothing, but it made his heart thump loudly in his chest, made his blood run hot and Ace knew well enough what that meant. He'd been trying to hide it, and he certainly hoped he was succeeding, but recently it had become harder to do so; his cheeks would go on their own accord and colour themselves in a deep red. Ace stopped blushing when he was twelve! How Marco, a man he'd only known for a short while, could pull such reactions back to his, Ace didn't know, but then he realised how everyone was chatting around him and giving him pats on his back and shoulder. Becoming even more obvious to him was how he was staring openly at Marco and how Marco was looking back at him with a small, dazzling smile, yet his arm was no longer around Ace. That left the freckled young man a bit disappointed, but Thatch soon snatched him away and dragged him out on the deck properly, crewmates moving around them, chatting happily with the birthday boy, and soon, Marco wasn't the most pressing issue on Ace's mind.

Marco moved along the railing and crossed the ship to go sit by his father's side, silently watching the party that had started, with a smile. Whitebeard chuckled quietly and turned to look down at Marco.

"So I've heard you finally made it." The sentence wasn't said in an accusing nor an amused tone, but more in a stating manner and Marco knew his Pops wanted to talk a bit about it.

"Yes. I can feel it, yoi. Those emotions I've read about long ago in the book you gave me about my powers…" Marco trailed off and earned a nod from Whitebeard.

"I'm happy my eldest son finally found love." Whitebeard laughed and Marco blushed at his words.

"O-Oyaji!"

That earned him an even louder laughter and some of the members turned to look at them to see what's going on. Marco quickly turned his back to them so they wouldn't see him blush.

"Don't say it like that, yoi! It's… You don't know if that will even work and… Maybe it's just one-sided, yoi…" Marco's words lost their edge as a wave of doubt and uncertainty washed over him. What if it was truly one-sided and Ace didn't return his feelings? He would be… devastated, to say the least. And his _gift_ would be put to waste, too.

"Now now, Marco. You and I both know that that can't be true," Whitebeard started with a softer gaze and tone. "Did you forget how he stared at you openly just a little while ago, lost in his little world of thought and not bothering to gather himself in front of everyone?"

Marco knew his Oyaji had a point and he nodded before turning his head to look at the crew. They already got to the presents part and Marco took a deep breath, about to excuse himself to go get his present from his room, but Whitebeard beat him to it.

"Go. Get your present and get him."

Marco looked up at his father for a moment before his face showed a small smile of gratitude and understanding, then he left without another word, weaving through his mass of siblings. He only got to glance over at Ace once then he caught Izo and Thatch's gazes, the latter giving him a thumb up. Marco rolled his eyes and finally exited the deck, rushing to his room and opening the door quickly, getting inside and pulling the drawer to his desk open to reveal it empty except for a small square shaped item. It was wrapped in a black piece of cloth, soft to the touch, and tied at the top with a golden silk thread.

Picking up his gift and securing it in his palm, Marco walked out of his room and back to the deck, everyone was almost done giving Ace his presents, and as he drew closer to the huge circle of people, he could hear the freckled boy more clearly. His laughs driving Marco's feet to walk closer to him.

"I can't believe you wanted to let the day pass without telling us, Ace."

"Yeah, aren't we your brothers and sisters? Your nakama?"

"I just didn't know how to bring it up, guys, but… obviously you've done your jobs quite well."

"You can thank our first division commander for that. He's the one who supplied the info and prepared everything."

At that last sentence, said by one of Marco's division crewmen, everyone quietened down and they parted for Marco, who was about to push his way in, as a dramatic way of entrance. If it had been any other moment, he would have rolled his eyes, but not now when he had his eyes fixed on that certain freckled boy by the name of Ace who had a blush dusting his cheeks.

Walking slowly in steady strides, the blond stopped in front of Ace, fully aware of everyone watching them intently, including the head of their family. Marco cleared his throat quietly and lifted his hand up, the small, light square resting in his palm. "Happy birthday, yoi", and Ace had never heard Marco's voice sound so soft.

Marco and Ace were vaguely aware of the people around them cheering quietly as if not to break the moment between the two, and Ace, almost hypnotized, reached out and took the object from Marco's palm into his own hand, still looking at the blond with an unreadable expression.

The birthday boy exclaimed inwardly how light the present felt in his hand, and how he felt something pull him to open it, so he did just that. He tore his gaze from Marco's and brought the feather light gift to rest on his left palm, his right hand moving to untie the knot at the top that kept the soft wrapping cloth folded around the square object.

Once the tie was undone, the soft thread fell softly to the ground and the cloth slid off the square box, coating Ace's palm with a velvety feeling, exposing the glass box with a gift that had the entire ship gasp in awe, Ace himself had his jaw slack at what he held in his hands.

Blue and yellow flames were flickering inside the clear glass box and the shape of a flower Ace didn't know the name of, but adored nonetheless, came to light. He squinted at it, turning his palm around slowly, raising it to eye level, and he kept looking at it, mesmerized by the flames and the soft sizzling sound he could hear from it now that he was close enough. Izo and Thatch pushed their way to the front of the crowd to get a better look at the gift, but Ace couldn't spare them a second thought as he looked up at Marco, waiting for an explanation to the exotic gift with a smile plastered on his face.

Marco grinned when he saw his favourite smile on Ace's face and took a deep breath before he started explaining, "This fire is a special kind of fire derived from my phoenix's flames. It's called Eternal Fire," Marco began and felt his tension and nervousness seep away. "The reason the fire is burning in a certain shape and won't go out is because it is framed by a feather taken from the tail of my phoenix form. Had Thatch and Izo pull it before, yoi…" Marco said with a soft smile as he glanced at his brothers, who wore smiles on their faces.

"I weave the feather into whatever shape I like and light it with my fire. The fire spreads into the shape weaved and stays aflame in it, yoi. This can only be made once in a phoenix's lifetime and as long as the phoenix is alive, the flames will continue to burn, yoi… Thus the naming: Eternal Fire." Marco paused for a moment and looked closely at Ace, checking for any signs of discomfort.

Ace, however, had been staring with a dumb look on his face, as Marco explained, not believing how magical the whole thing sounded. He was listening to Marco so intently he almost forgot that there were other people around them. Why was he doing all of this for him? It sounded like something really important… really dear and, did he dare say… romantic? Did Ace mean so much to the first mate of Whitebeard? How could he have been so blind as to not notice this before?

"This gift," Marco continued, "expresses cherish, care, protection and… love to whoever receives it, yoi. I… I hope you'll accept it from me as your birthday gift..." He finished the sentence with uncertainty evident in his voice, even though he hated how lame he sounded in his own ears, he couldn't help it. That's the effect Ace had on him.

Ace remembered to breathe and closed his mouth to look more intelligent and mature. So those were the feelings behind such an extraordinary gift? Those were the emotions that Marco wanted to convey to him?

With an unreadable expression, Ace closed his palm loosely around the gift and lowered his hand next to him, taking a couple of steps forward until he was standing in Marco's personal space. He tilted his head up slightly and looked the blond in the eye. "You made this on the day that you disappeared into your room, didn't you? The day you didn't eat nor sleep nor left your room at all, right?" He gave himself a mental pat on the back at how steady and composed his voice sounded, unlike how he truly felt on the inside.

When Marco gave him a silent nod and held his gaze, Ace couldn't stop himself from leaning forward and pressing his lips to the other man's, taking both the man before him and himself by surprise, but closing his eyes to enjoy how Marco's lips felt against his nonetheless. Although he should have expected it, Ace was surprised when Marco's lips started moving, kissing and devouring his lips in obvious, pent-up, secret affection.

Marco's body moved on instinct and his arm wrapped around Ace's waist, pulling him against his body and closing his eyes to savour the moment. Ace accepted him! That thought alone made him want to fly out of joy and happiness. He held onto the moment and that thought, refusing to think of anything else, but the affection the freckled birthday boy was offering in return.

They parted slowly and broke their kiss, keeping their bodies against each other and their faces close while panting quietly, only then did they notice the cheers, whistles and happy laughter that surrounded them, the entire crew was present and that made Ace's face flush bright red and Marco's cheeks ting with a light dust of pink. Marco and Ace eyed each other for a moment before their gazes moved to the side to eye their brothers, then they chuckled and looked back at one another, Marco wrapping his arms around Ace properly and pulling him into a tight embrace.

Ace's laughter got lighter, yet louder and Marco found himself loving the sound of it. The boy wrapped his free hand around Marco's back and hugged him back, whispering, "Thank you. Thank you so much, Marco."

"Thank you, Ace, for accepting my gift," was all Marco had to say to put their hearts at ease and fill their souls with a newly awoken flame. Who would've thought that love could be such a burning emotion when it comes to Marco and Ace?


End file.
